Instructor feedback

1. Week 1 - Instructor feedback

Week 1 - Instructor feedback

INSTRUCTORS FEEDBACK: WEEK ONE SUMMARY

(BY SCHOLASTIC MALOBA/IMTR)

The participants were to accomplish a number of tasks before the course kick-off on 6^th May 2024.

(i) Introduction: the participants introduced themselves using the padlet map. They were drawn from different countries (Egypt, Ghana, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, Nigeria, Gambia, Cameroun, Algeria, Carbo Verde, Liberia, Tanzania, Uganda, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Djibouti, Namibia, Lesotho, Bulawayo, Togo, Bostwana, Ethopia, Egypt, Libya, Eswatini, Burkina Faso, Mogadishu, Rwanda, Guinea, Angola). It was however noted that some of the participants had not yet introduced themselves by 6^th May during the kick-off live session because they didn’t know how to access and use the Padlet map to introduce themselves.

(ii) Pre-assessment/ Learning the satellite products (lessons): The participants were encouraged to read through the Chapter "Satellite Products" for an introduction to using Visible, Infrared, and Water Vapour imagery as well as the RGB Composite products (Natural Colour RGB, Dust RGB, Severe Convection RGB and Night Microphysics RGB) used every day in operational meteorology before the live presentation for the same. At the end of the chapter, the participants tested their skills by going through some question on weather related questions in Satellite Product Comparisons.

Course Kick-off (live session #1)

The course kick-off virtual meeting was held on Monday 6^th May 2024 and it was presided over by Vesa. About 147 participants from various African countries attended the Live session. Vesa warmly welcomed the participants and gave a brief overview of what was anticipated during the meeting and the course in general. The instructors were given opportunity to briefly introduce themselves to the participants.

After the instructors’ introductions, Vesa took the participants through an overview of the course and how to maneuver through the course website.

The chat messages during the kick-off session showed that the participants were very eager to learn and acquire more knowledge and enhance their skills in the interpretation and use of satellite products.

The participants were encouraged to go through the course resources posted on the course website in order to gain more from the training.

The kick-off meeting ended with a question and answer session where the participants asked questions directly or using the text chart. The instructors answered the questions and the participants were encouraged to ask any other questions through the course forum for further discussions.

Introduction to Satellite Products (Live Session #2)

The second live session was held on Wednesday, 7 May 2024. The session was hosted by Vesa from EUMETSAT.

Scholastic Maloba an instructor from IMTR- Kenya, presented on an ‘Introduction to satellite products’. She explained to the participants on how to interpret various features using the single band satellite images (Visible, IR and water vapor), RGB satellite images (Natural color, dust, severe convection, night microphysics, day microphysics, Airmass) and some of the derived products used in the generation of weather forecasts.

The presentation was interactive and at the end, the participants were encouraged to post any related question on the course forum for further deliberations.

The participants were reminded to complete the following tasks in order to access their certificates at the end of the course:

1.    Learning the satellite Products (Lesson)

2.    Identifying Atmospheric Features (Lesson)

3.    Add a weather event

4.    Meteosat Third Generation (Lesson)

5.    Compare MTG and MSG images

6.    Final Quiz

7.    Course evaluation

Introduction to EUMETView

After the presentation by Scholastic, Vesa briefed the participants on how to use EUMETView (an online service that enables displaying images and creating maps of EMETSAT products).  Participants were shown on how to access satellite products using EUMETView. They were also shown how to download and save single images as well as animated images.

Conclusion

Week one was a success because most of the registered participants participated in the various tasks assigned for week 1.  The instructors were at hand to assist the participants accordingly.

 

2. Week 2 - Instructor feedback

In week 2 there were  Pre-assessment activities on the COMET website: The participants were engaged in a pre-assessment quiz which covered material in the course prior to the commencement of the training.

The third live  session was held on Tuesday, 14 May 2024.

The session was hosted by Vesa Nietosvaara and  Natasa Strelec Mahovic from Eumetsat and presenters from SAWS.

Mathsidiso Mogale, a trainer from the SAWS Regional Training Centre started the session with a presentation. This was followed by another  presentation from Kgolo Dune from the SAWS National forecast Centre.

Kgolo presented after Tshidi, where she dived into the identification of convection, fog/stratiform and dust clouds using satellite imagery. The main goal of the presentation was to ensure that participants learn how to identify the above mentioned features using various satellite imagery, which was achieved by looking into single channels (that is the IR10.8, VIS 0.6 and the HIRES VIS channel), as well as RGBs such as the Day Natural Colours, the Day and Night Microphysics, Convective Storms and the HIRES cloud enhanced RGBs. The presentation tied together with Tshidi's presentation as we looked at the cloud texture, shape, thickness, as well as cloud top temperatures in order for us to be able to identify convective and stratiform cloud features. 

The session ended with a brief discussion following questions posted in the Q&A.